Forgive Me Not
by McBreezy
Summary: Bree/Orson focused; set the morning after Edie kisses Orson. Bree confronts her neighbor, battling with the urge to forgive Orson for his crime against Mike and her moral center telling her to let him go.


Chapter 1

_Edie Britt is a tramp. _This was a commonly known fact among the residents of Wisteria Lane, and in fact, most of Fairview, and Edie embraced the title. But what she had pulled this time was so far over the line that the line may as well have been in outer space, and Bree Hodge, for one, was not about to let her get away with it. So, that morning, she marched straight to Edie's the second she saw the blonde walking to her mailbox. "Edie Britt! I need to talk to you!" she said sternly, putting her hands on her hips as she stood in front of her not-so-friendly neighbor.

"Yes?" Edie drew out the word in her usual coquettish manner, pretending she'd done nothing wrong. Bree saw right through her.

"Don't play coy with me, you backstabbing harlot. I saw you kissing my husband." Fire raged in Bree's eyes, and she was certain her pupils now matched the color of her hair.

"Ooh, _harlot_, huh? Someone's been reading Shakespeare." Edie was eerily calm about the situation, and it did nothing but make Bree even angrier. The woman had taken Bree's husband in behind her back, gotten him drunk, and put the moves on him. To Bree's way of thinking, that kind of behavior was unacceptable, especially from a woman she considered a friend.

"Do not patronize me, Edie! I _saw_ you, you were all over him, and after you assured me you weren't attracted to him. Obviously our friendship cannot continue with you acting this way, and I think I deserve an apology." she crossed her arms, arching an eyebrow expectantly.

"An apology? For what? Taking care of your drunk husband; the one that, have you forgotten, _you_ threw out? I don't think so, Bree. It was just a kiss, and a drunken one at that. Those don't even count. So no, I will not apologize." Bree stood there in complete shock, her jaw slightly dropped, rage still burning her corneas.

"How dare you. I may have kicked him out while we work through our problems, but he is _my_ husband nonetheless, and you have absolutely no right to make any kind of advances on him, drunk or not!"

"Oh, so now you're the all high and mighty one? Are you telling me you've _never_ done anything wrong? Anything that people might find offensive or morally questionable? Because from what I've heard, I could list quite a few of your sins. Look, I'm not saying I'm innocent, but neither are you. For some reason beyond my comprehension, Orson loves you. And you know what he did when I kissed him? He rejected me. So what are you standing here lecturing me for, when what you should be doing is marching in there and asking him to come back home?" Edie had a point, Bree begrudgingly admitted to herself, but she had no idea what Orson had done, and Bree wasn't about to tell her. If Orson wasn't willing to go to the police, she couldn't let him back into her life. Not yet.

"Don't pretend you know anything about my marriage, Edie. Or anyone else's, for that matter. For once, you just need to stay out of other peoples' love lives. Karl, Mike, and Carlos weren't enough for you, so you have to start moving in on Orson? Who's next? Tom? Adam? Gonna try and straighten out Bob and Lee so you can sleep with them, too??" Bree was furious now, her voice becoming higher and her speech more rapid as she went on. Her cheeks were flushed with her anger, her breath slightly ragged. "You don't want to cross me again." she said softly, taking a step towards Edie, before lowering her arms back to her sides and walking up to the door. "I'm going to go talk to Orson now, I hope you don't mind." she flashed Edie a cheeky smirk and swung the door open and letting it slam behind her, leaving the bewildered blonde at the mailbox.

Chapter 2

Orson hadn't known that Bree saw Edie kissing him the night before, but when he glanced out the window, only to find his wife confronting their notorious neighbor, his heart sank. Not only would she never forgive him for running over Mike, but now she thought he'd cheated on her, as well. He sighed, thinking his fate had been sealed. He'd have to learn to live without the love of his life. He watched on for a while, knowing Bree had a tendency to slap and throw punches when she got this angry, but fortunately, no physical fights ensued. When he saw her approaching the house, he hurried back to the couch, taking a seat and picking up his coffee cup. He heard the door slam and turned, looking straight into his wife's angry eyes, though he could see the sadness in them, as well. He knew her, and he knew she still loved him. He just had to find a way to gain her forgiveness, though he thought now it would never happen. "Bree…you're here." he stated the obvious, setting his cup back on the table.

"Yes, I'm here. I'm here to tell you that you can expect to be served with divorce papers. Orson, how _could_ you?? You know how Edie is, and yet you chose to stay in her house, drink with her, let her kiss you, and God only knows what else?!" she sighed, throwing her arms in the air. "What am I supposed to do? As if your hit and run surprise weren't enough, now I have to deal with you and Edie, too?? How much more can I be expected to take?"

"Bree, nothing happened with Edie. She kissed me, I told her to stop, she agreed it was wrong, and that was it. I would never cheat on you, I love you!"

"And yet you ran over Mike and have been lying to me about it throughout our entire relationship." It was a solid comeback, he couldn't argue.

"Bree, I know what I did was wrong. _Beyond_ wrong. And I have been punishing myself for it ever since. Mike and Susan know how sorry I am, and they've agreed to forgive me. Why can't you do the same? You know me, better than anyone else, and you know that I could never hurt anyone now, for any reason. You know why I did what I did, and I know there's no decent excuse for doing it, but it's all I have. If I could take it back, I would, a million times over. But I can't change the past. I just want the chance to prove to you that I can change the future. _I've _changed, you have to know that." Bree listened to his heartfelt speech, knowing he was sincere, and in all honesty, she just wanted to throw her arms around him and bring him back home. But she couldn't. He'd committed an unspeakable crime…but…

"_Mama?" Andrew's eyes were large, full of panic and tears as Bree realized what her son had done. The skid marks on the road were proof of his carelessness._

"_Our son could spend the rest of his life in jail. I won't allow that." she had been stern then, unwilling to let one she loved go down for a crime that he obviously felt no remorse over committing. She had let it go then…_

"_Give me one good reason why I shouldn't turn you in!" "Because I'm your son…that would make __**you**__ the monster." _

"Bree?" Orson's voice drew her back into the present, the voices of the past still echoing through her mind. How could she condone what Andrew had done, and not give the man she loved the same courtesy? Andrew hadn't run over Juanita Solis purposely, but he didn't feel any remorse over it, either. Orson obviously did. And oh, how she longed for him to be home again. For their marriage to be repaired. But trust was a hard thing to fix once broken, and he had shattered it into a million pieces. Perhaps she could forgive what he'd done, but to forgive the betrayal he'd committed by lying to her all this time…that was another matter entirely.

"Orson, I…" she cleared her throat, wondering what Edie was up to outside the house. "Perhaps we should go h-" she cut herself off before completing the word _home, _thinking it might give him false hope as to her intentions, however badly she wanted him to come back. "-go to my house." she finished. "Edie is probably…cold." she said, remembering how scantily the blonde had been clad that morning, a sour taste forming in her mouth at the thought. She turned again for the door, walking out slowly this time, holding it open slightly until he had passed through it as well, and letting it slip through her fingers after he had, a small _whoosh_-ing sound audible as the door slammed once more.

Edie stood at the curb now, fussing with the garbage cans and recycling. Bree passed by with every bit of dignity she had left in her, her head held high as she made her way back to number 4354, the big blue house she'd worked so hard to make perfect, Orson in tow. He kept silent, feeling Edie's eyes burning into his back, but he didn't care about her. All that mattered now was Bree, and their marriage. It couldn't be over, and he wasn't going to let her go without one hell of a fight.


End file.
